The
word here translated “accepted” is a
much stronger word than our English word “accepted.” This word means, “highly
favored, laudable, praiseworthy.” We are not and never could be “accepted”
before and by the holy Lord God, except in Christ the Beloved. But in him, in
the Beloved, every believer, every sinner chosen, redeemed, and called by
grace, is so completely and totally accepted of God that, even in the eyes of
the holy, omniscient Lord God, we are highly favored, laudable, and
praiseworthy!

1. Our acceptance with God is
thorough, complete, total, and absolute. To be “accepted
in the beloved” is to be justified from all things, freed from all sin, the
objects of divine complacency and delight, and worthy of our heavenly
inheritance (Col. 1:12). The Lord God looks upon his people in Christ with such
total satisfaction that he declares us to be pure, chaste, undefiled, so much
so that we ravish his very heart! He says, with regard to all his elect in
Christ, “Thou art all fair, my love;
there is no spot in thee.” (Read Song 4:1,7,9.) The apostle Paul declares
to every believing sinner, “Ye are
complete in him” (Col. 2:10). This is not something we anticipate, but
something that is ours already in Christ.

2. Our acceptance with God is only “in the beloved.” God the Father is well
pleased with his Son. And he is well pleased with us in his Son. When our
Savior was upon the mount of transfiguration, the Father spoke from heaven and
said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased” (Matt. 17:5). He did not say, “with” or even “by,” but “in whom I am well pleased.” God the Father is pleased with his
Son and pleased with all who are in his Son. We recognize that even our
right-eousnesses are filthy rags in God’s sight (Is. 64:6). God could never
receive us or anything done by us apart from Christ. We know that even our
prayers are accepted of God only through the merit and mediation of Christ (I
Pet. 2:5). But, blessed be God, in Christ we are accepted!

3. Our acceptance with God in Christ
is everlasting and therefore immutable. Bless God, our acceptance does not depend upon us.
It did not begin with us. It is not maintained by us. And it cannot be altered
by us. Though we fell in our father Adam, yet we were “accepted in the beloved.” Though we came forth from our mothers’
wombs speaking lies, we were still “accepted
in the beloved.” Though we spent our days, from our youth up, in wanton
rebellion against God and in league with hell, we were still “accepted in the beloved.” And though
after the Lord God saved us by his wondrous grace, we sin and fall a thousand
times a day, as we all do, yet it stands in the Scripture that we are “accepted in the beloved.” What a
glorious position this is. You and I who believe are “accepted in the beloved!” And that never changes or fluctuates
because our God never changes or fluctuates (Mal. 1:6).